Rainy day in Altrincham

The recent spell of stormy weather led me to visit rather more pubs than usual in Altrincham. Every time I left a pub, driving rain drove me into the next pub round the corner. Fortunately there are some very comfortable pubs and excellent ale to be had.

For me, there are two especial treats in Altrincham. One is the fishmonger's on Greenwood Street, with such delights as loose shrimps (not potted) and sweet cured herrings. The other is just a few doors away: Le Trappiste with its immense range of Belgian beers. These include a wide choice of Geuze - challengingly sour but a great way to start the day. I treated myself to Frank Boon Oude Geuze - not cheap at £4.50 a bottle but it really does knock your socks off! The owner, Wayne, manages to keep finding new beers from places I've never heard of. Sadly, he's never been able to re-build his kitchen after extending the drinking area, so the mussels and chips are a thing of the past.

Next stop was the Orange Tree where the beer range is increasingly adventurous. The pub is owned by Unique Pub Company which has a supply agreement with the Society of Independent Brewers. Andy was very impressed with a beer from Skipton Brewery that his regulars drank dry in just 3 hours recently: Copper Dragon Golden Pippin. He would have been even more impressed if he could have got a pint for himself! I settled for Rudgate's Viking, a full bodied beer but still safely under 4% ABV.

Fortunately, it's only a few steps to the Old Market Tavern next door and an even bigger array of beers. This also had Skipton beers but for me, the treat here is always Robinson's Old Tom, a winter staple and served on gravity. And there are now no fewer than three ciders on offer, usually from Saxon (implausibly based in Batley).

After a couple here I was getting hungry, and over the road is a chip shop, the Don Supper Bar. Here I could hide from the rain in their dining room and enjoy very substantial fish and chips.

I ended up a few doors away in the Old Roebuck, a pub that I remember from years ago when it did the best pint of Wilsons Mild in town. Sadly there's no cask mild now, but there are three bitters, Boddington's, Charles Wells Bombardier and Green King IPA. I find that Boddington's, despite the new recipe, can still be a variable beer, but here it was on good form. The Roebuck is still a traditional multi-roomed pub and has a welcoming atmosphere. Just the place to watch the rugby on TV while the rain lashed down outside!

Neil Worthington

Orange Tree bears fruit

The Trafford & Hulme branch of CAMRA has introduced a Pub of the Season award, for the first time in many years. A branch meeting decided that the most worthy recipient of the inaugural award, for Summer 2003, would be the Orange Tree in Altrincham. The award is in recognition of the exemplary efforts made by licensees Andy and Sue to promote cask ale, most notably in staging their first ever Beer Festival in March 2003.

Cask ale isn't something new there, but it is something they've been promoting and beer sales are up as a result. This is despite the handicap of a tiny cellar - the pub you see now is several eighteenth century buildings that have been joined up and adapted over many years. Not to mention the alleged presence of two ghosts, one in the cellar and one upstairs - they're described in a newspaper article displayed by the bar. Also on display is the Wilsons Brewery Shrine. This is a glazed alcove near the main entrance featuring handpumps, bar towels, beer mats, ash trays and all kinds of memorabilia with the famous chequerboard logo of this late lamented Manchester brewery.
The pub now belongs to the Unique Pub Company (part of Scottish & Newcastle) but is leased to a much smaller operator, Back Tracks UK, who also have the Bowling Green in Stockport. Beer supply is tied to S&N but there is a very wide ranging beer list to choose from. Drawn up in partnership with SIBA (the Society of Independent Brewers), the "Quarterly Ales Selector" offers three dozen beers each quarter. The Orange Tree usually has three cask ales, Tetley Bitter as the "house" beer and two guests (Charles Wells Bombardier is a particular favourite of the regulars).
It's not an especially quiet pub but it certainly doesn't go in for loud booming music. The cheerful atmosphere and the uncommon smoke-free back room make it an attractive meeting place for all sorts of people. And it's also the home of the "Ticker Club" - not collectors of novelty beers, as you might suppose, but a bunch of people raising funds for heart transplant patients. Food is served at lunchtimes (12 till 3 on weekdays, 12 till 5 on Sundays).

Oh yes - and there's likely to be another Beer Festival. Andy and Sue hope to make it a regular event.

The Old Market Tavern in Altrincham continues much as before, with a very wide range of cask ales from its massed ranks of hand pumps. When I last visited, one of the beers was the unsurpassable Scoresby Stout.

Another fascinating destination in Altrincham is the Trappiste Belgian beer bar next to the market hall. With a wide range of Belgian draught and bottled beers (some of which, the purists will appreciate, are bottle conditioned "Real Ale in a bottle"), this is a different and entertaining place to visit. It is thought to be the first accredited outlet in the UK for draught Chimay Blanche.